TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: ABSOLUTELY USELESS WEBSITES

I put on my Centre For The Easily Amused t-shirt this morning and
remembered with a twinge of sadness that this site has forever
vanished from cyberspace. But a little research on the web quickly
revealed that there are still plenty of sites that have ABSOLUTELY
NO REDEEMING VALUE.

Before we visit those utterly useless websites, I must urge you to
support our wonderful TOURBUS sponsors. Both Flying Noodle and
Travel Information have been "on the bus" for several years, and
I can tell you from personal experience that they're top notch!

All of the OTHER sites featured in today's TOURBUS are totally
useless, a complete waste of time -- not worth the electrons from
which they were constructed. So I'm sure you'll enjoy spending
countless hours visiting them, just like me. :-)

USELESS INFORMATION

Steve Silverman seems to have too much time on his hands. This
science teacher who lives near Albany, New York has spent several
years putting together a collection of pages he calls "Useless
Information - Stuff you never needed to know but your life would be
incomplete without." Actually, it's a fascinating journey through
history, science and trivia that has attracted thousands of readers
and won a boatload of awards.

* Read the true story of the Flubber Fiasco, in which some of the
fictional properties of Hasbro's movie tie-in Flubber toy
appeared to become reality. In 1963 the product was selling by
the millions, but after a recall Hasbro found that getting rid
of the stuff was no easy task!

* Learn about Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived for 18 months
after his head was chopped off by Farmer Olsen.

* Or ponder the plight of Sir Alfred, who has been waiting for his
flight to depart since 1988. Alfred has been stuck in a French
airport, tied up in government red tape for over a decade.

* How about this for creative recycling? Jack Hall, a bored sailor
in the 1930's made thirteen working musical instruments, a windmill
and a lighthouse out of discarded matchsticks.

* What's the highest price ever paid for a PEZ candy dispenser?
How would you like to try some Chlorophyll or Eucalyptus
flavored PEZ? Learn more than you ought to know about this
candy phenomenon.

Visit the Useless Information page at the address below. I found
the Site Index page to be very helpful in navigating.

HOW MUCH INSIDE?

How many square feet of floor space can be covered by your basic bag
of Doritos Nacho chips? How much foam is really inside those cans of
expanding foam? And exactly how much white sugary goo is there in a
20-ounce package of Oreo cookies? Rob Cockerham, creator of the
Cockeyed Laboratory, has answers to these and other questions that
have troubled humankind for days.

DANCING PAUL

The site says he can dance if he want to, but it's really up to you.
Select the Music, the Jiggy, the Booty, some scenery and a cast of
backup dancers. Annoyingly hard to stop fiddling with! This site
may take a while to load, due to the "Tourbus Effect".

DON'S BOSS PAGE

Of course I don't recommend that you explore these pages while you
should be doing Important Stuff at Work, but if temptation overcomes
you, here's a site that you will find invaluable. Visit Don's
Boss Page for hard-at-work sound effects and the Personal Protector.

THE REALLY BIG BUTTON THAT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING

And finally, you must experience The Really Big Button That Doesn't
Do Anything. The RBBTDDA was discovered by Stefan Gagne in 1994 and
placed on this page, but it may well have existed for decades prior.